Design of a microwave dielectric surrogate for soil using aqueous gelatin-syrup solutions

A microwave dielectric surrogate is designed from gelatin, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), NaCl and distilled water and can be made to look electrically similar to a variety of soils, loams and sands. The addition of HFCS simplifies the blending process by softening the sample while providing extensive dielectric range and increasing the shelf life appreciably. Measurements are made from 200 MHz-20 GHz for a wide variety of ingredient concentrations allowing a relative dielectric constant range of 8-35 to be realized across the band. Separate polynomial expressions at individual frequencies are given for the dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the two groups.